In it you’ll read about a couple of “diverse” drivers, NASCAR Camping World East’s Jonathan Smith, who is struggling for success as part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, and Lori Langevin, who is making dirt late model competition struggle up in Vermont and New York.

There’s also a feature on Canaan Dirt Speedway promoter Wally Brown, who’s not as dumb as he thinks he is, and a look back at the Bodine Brothers’ days in modifieds. Plus some advice to racers looking to make a “field trip” to race in a track’s big open-rules season-ending event.

On August 23 my brother and co-conspirator Ward Ring and I went to Scott Viets’s to pick up the pieces of what will be the Quad-4 midget we’ll be racing at Whip City Speedway in 2009.  Other than an engine and steering components the “car-collection” appears essentially complete. The chassis is purported to be a 1984 Gennerton. Its most noticable feature is a roll cage that seems to tower over other midgets, which is fine because protection is more important to me than esthetics. It’s obvious, though, that every piece will require some particular attention.  The rearend hasn’t been apart in years; we’ll be sure to go through that carefully.  Bodywork also will need some massaging. By far the more important attention will come to the frame itself. This car has survived some wicked headers. Scott claims it remains (or has been returned to) essentially square. A couple of trophies attest to that. That could be good enough. The truism is that the frame only serves to square the four points of the suspension to the motor plate, and that every other point is irrelevant. But when you look at the naked chassis there are tubes that don’t actually follow the shortest disatance between two points. Every one of them invites chassis-flex, and as Scott already described the car as not exactly stiff, the less of that the better.

We’ll be meeting soon with Shorttrack tech advisor Walt Scadden, and Walt will help us inventory what we have in anticipation of wading into the process of preparing individual pieces for re-assembly. We’re also on the lookout for a motor (I officially have given up on using the more technically correct term “engine.” Usage of a word is subject to the whims of the masses. The masses have chosen “motor.”). Our priority is a working piece, preferably in a tired car, so that we can get the harness, electronics, and various other odds and ends. There already have been a few false alarms in this department. It seems every car out there “runs.” Of course “It did last time I started it.” Right. Five years ago. We do have some other options, but for now time is one of them. We’ll keep looking.

I’ll keep you posted.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel a little disrespect coming from down South towards us “Yankees.” They think they’re so wonderful? How come every time we match up on the racetrack (PASS South, North-South Shootout, etc.) we hand them their butts? And yet how often does a driver from up here get a REAL shot at driving a Sprint Cup, Nationwide or Craftsman Truck racecar?

Yes, I know about Joey Logano. But he might just be the exception that proves the rule. Did he head south to make his mark because he knew if he did it up here no one would give him the chance that he’s currently taking advantage of to prove he’s one of the best young drivers in the country? Is he really that much better than Bobby Santos, or Derek Ramstrom, or Randy Cabral, or a dozen other “Yankees?”

Do you think he is? Do you think those Sprint Cup kids who keep losing their rides are on a different level than the best young local talent? Or do you think ya gotta be a good ole’ boy to get a real shot at NASCAR stardom?